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Chapter 5: One Becomes Three

The one is divided into three, and then into infinity. Now if we wish to reach God, we shall first have to reduce infinity to three; and the three are then to be infused into one and ultimately become one. This is the reverse journey, like traveling the Ganges to Gangotri - towards the fundamental source.

So from the many we have to concentrate on the three. The three are the intermediary destination. After three the one remains.

The ordinary man wanders in the many. How many desires, how many expectations! Can you count them? And each desire is intertwined with so many other desires, like so many leaves on a tree. They are endless - man’s hopes and dreams. There is no way to fulfill them. How many things he possesses! So many arrangements and so much equipment he gathers! And even if you obtain all that you desire, you are not satisfied. The more you attain the more you wander in the multifarious objects of the world and the further you go from the one. And the further you go from the one, the greater becomes your suffering. It is as if, going further and further away from the source of light, darkness increases proportionally till ultimately you find yourself in total darkness.

To go into the many means that there is a great distance between you and the one. We are all in the many. He who has come into the three from the many, we call a seeker. He is in between. And he who has progressed from the three to the one, we say he has attained. He has reached the place where God originally was.

Let us try to understand this further. How will you reduce the many into the three? The method to do this is the method of witnessing. If you observe your desires and do not become the enjoyer of them, you are the witness. If you experience desires as the doer you will lose yourself in the many. By witnessing alone you can reduce the many into the three. Whatever you do, do not be involved in your actions. Observe everything in a detached manner, and one fine day you will suddenly discover that the three have arrived! One is the observer, the other is the multifarious world of objects, which now is like a gigantic screen on which everything moves. The many is no more. And between the two is seeing. So there is that which is seen, the observer or witness, and the seeing. You have reverted from the many to the three.

As soon as the witnessing is cultivated, you have become a seeker. This is the state of the sannyasin. To revert from the many to the three is sannyas. Whatever you do, keep the witness alert; when walking on the road, eating your meals, putting on your clothes. Even in illness or pain, or when you win the lottery - whatever the situation, keep the witness alert inside. Never lose sight of it within.

There are two ways of losing the witnessing state: if you become the enjoyer you lose it, or if you become the doer you lose it. At the moment you say, “I have done this,” the witness is lost, and the drug of arrogance begins its work. You are no longer the same person.